Dont' Judge a Book By It's Cover(Unless It's a Magazine...)

The editor’s main concern is what goes on the front cover of the magazine and if that front cover is good enough to sell the magazine. Also, to make sure that everyone is included in the front cover of the magazine to attract all the different audience criteria. The front cover is so important because it is the first thing that everyone sees to make up their mind whether they want to purchase or not. If the front cover isn’t attractive then no one would buy it and the company will make a lost.
Editors of “Kerrang!” make the cover appeal to the whole of the readership by including all of the different key issues in the magazine on the front cover. Main selling points that “Kerrang!” use are freebies like stickers and posters. Occasionally they use promotional CD’s but this takes a lot of time picking only good songs and a lot of money to produce. Other techniques are used such as calendars, posters and more than one front cover is created so that people can purchase both covers and use them as collector’s items.
Cover mounted CD’s can either boost sales or drop sales. If “Kerrang!” uses a CD mounted cover sales will boost as the audiences are attracted by freebies, where as mix-mag uses CD mounted magazine each time meaning if for some reason the CD was taken off then customers will not buy and the sales will fall. Although CD mounted front covers can help sales there is also another disadvantage takes a lot of time picking only good songs and a lot of money to produce also that the audience will expect to continue seeing the CD.
The two most important areas on a magazine front cover are the logo and sweet spot. The logo is used to create a brand identity and is kept the same each time so that it can be easily recognised. On the front cover of a magazine the editor tries to be reinsuring and different.